I'm starting a small web design shop. We does not have much money so we would like to keep our costs as low as possible.

All we need is a @ourcompany.com mail address and a few web pages to showcase our work and we are looking at Google Apps which gives enough functionality for us. However, to verify ownership of the domain to google apps, there are 2 possible ways:

Upload a file with special name to tell google that we have access.

Change a CNAME record to point to google.com to show that we do control the domain.

Both methods require a internet-facing machine with a fixed IP in which we have none.

So we are looking at free DNS services like zoneedit.com and such... which seems promising but we are concerned about security/reliability issues. So I thought I'd ask here first.

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8 Answers
8

For real-live, actual DNS hosting, I have been loving ZoneEdit for more years than I can remember. Your first 5 domains are free, and the next are a small one-time cost. You can manage everything over the web and they do basic email and web hosting.

I used to use <hn.org/&gt; exclusively. It was an awesome free service but that shut down a couple of years ago. Since then I also use ZoneEdit. Very solid & reliable. No noticable downsides.
–
gyaresuMay 3 '09 at 23:31

I've never had downtime, spam, or hacking issues with ZoneEdit.
–
jhsMay 4 '09 at 3:13

3

Since about Oct 2010, ZoneEdit.com offers 2 free domains instead of 5 (unless you have bought credits before that time)
–
RoaltDec 29 '10 at 9:20

I've used ZoneEdit for years and been happy with their service. However, due to some recent hiccups, I decided to try out some alternatives.

I spent a few months testing several DNS hosting companies that have a free option. It isn't definitive, but I tried all of these personally with my own domain.

These results only represent a recent snapshot of 8 days. Things can and often do change over time. But at least for this month, I would recommend Namecheap. In addition to free DNS services, they offer free email forwarding.

DynDNS has been rock solid for me for years. I have had no reason to complain and I recommend it. Their documentation is excellent, and there are tons of clients there, both for Win32 and for unixy OSes. The way I read their Acceptable Use Policy, usage in your scenario (which is commercial usage) is OK with them.

That being said, you'll have much more flexibility running your own DNS server - you can create your own subdomains for example. Depending on your name registrar you might want to park the domain with them since they might offer tools for that.

Someone is hosting the DNS for the domain now. If you look at the actual registration for the domain, name servers must be provided. When you register the domain, generally the registering company assigns their own name servers. There should be some way for you to add the CNAME entry using that mechanism.